The ICJ is biased!!!

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In the run up to the April 10th 2019 referendum regarding the Belize-Guatemala Territorial Dispute, it has become evident that the discussion needs to start to separate between facts and opinions. To that end, this article marks the first installment of a fact-check series for Res Publica 360.

Among the many things discussed about the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the question as to whether or not the Court has a tendency to make biased rulings. And, as the title of this article indicates, the answer to that question is “yes”. However, one has to ask what is that bias?  Continue reading →

Facts versus Opinions

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I’ve been trying figure out what is it exactly about this whole ICJ debate that bothers me so much. Is it that I simply disagree with certain positions? Nah, that’s not it; people are entitled to their positions, and we wouldn’t have a healthy democracy otherwise. Is it that my I.S.T.J. mind just cannot tolerate how emotional some arguments have become? Nope. That can’t be it, because I’d be concerned if patriotic Belizeans weren’t moved to their core on this matter. So, then what is it?

And then it hit me. It’s the fact that I miss the days when an argument clearly separated between facts and opinions. In this post-truth or post-fact era, there’s an interesting phenomenon where opinions are no longer necessarily based on facts; but on other opinions disguised as opinions. The mechanics of how this works seem to exist within #ECHOchambers, which are dangerous in and of themselves. Continue reading →